Sugar Cravings

The Craving That's Hardest to Resist

Key word being hard, not impossible

The Craving That's Hardest to ResistKey word being hard, not impossible

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Sugar's been getting a lot of bad press lately, and this news won't help: New research in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that sugar is like a drug, hijacking the brain's reward system to bring on an onslaught of cravings.

For the study, scientists from the Oregon Research Institute examined 106 healthy teenagers (47 male and 59 female) as they lay in MRI machines and slurped down two different milkshakes. The treats were identical in calories, but half were high in sugar and low in fat, while the other half were low in sugar and high in fat.

While both shakes lit up brains' pleasure centers, those that were high in sugar spurred the greatest activity in the reward region of the brain—the same region that's notorious for its role in alcohol and drug addiction.

What's more, when researchers tried increasing the amount of fat in the high-sugar shake, they found it didn't affect the reward response, suggesting that it's sugar, not fat, that most strongly controls our food cravings.

Cut down on the sweet stuff—and your overall junk food cravings—with the help of these sugar-slashing tips: